Elephant Mountain, Marin County, California
This is a sunset photo of Elephant Mountain, aka Black Mountain, shot from across Tomales Bay in the Inverness Area.
Tag: california
Western Bluebird; Petaluma, California
This is the female of the pair of western bluebirds nesting in one of our bird boxes. She has a habit of flying to our windows and those of our neighbor. Sometimes she bumps into the window with her breast and other times stops just short of hitting the window. I understand it’s a territorial thing, in that she sees her reflection and thinks it’s a rival. She does this many, many times each day. I’m wondering if she will ever realize it’s not another bird.
Western Bluebird, Petaluma, California
This is the female of the pair of western bluebirds nesting in one of our bird boxes. She has a habit of flying to our windows and those of our neighbor. She stops just short of hitting the windows, but she repeats this oddity numerous times throughout the day.
Cooper’s Hawk, Petaluma, California
Here’s another Cooper’s Hawk (I think) in our back yard. I believe its meal was mourning dove.
Corinthian Island, Tiburon, California
Here’s another photo I took in Tiburon, California. It’s of the west side of Corinthian Island. I took this photo during the evening blue hour. The blue hour is my favorite time for landscape images. The evening blue hour begins a little after sunset. There is a blue hour before sunrise as well. If I were to shoot the island’s east side, I would shoot it before sunrise.
According to Wikipedia, the blue color spectrum “is most prominent when the Sun is between 4° and 8° below the horizon. When photographing during blue hour it can be favorable to capture subjects that have artificial light sources, such as buildings, monuments, cityscapes, or bridges.”
While I’ve never timed it, my recollection is that the blue hour starts about 15 minutes after sunset and fades away 30 to 40 minutes later.
Old Saint Hilary’s Church, Tiburon, California
Cooper’s Hawk; Petaluma, California
I looked out our dining room window the other morning and saw this cooper’s hawk eating a mourning dove. I grabbed my big lens and tripod and stationed myself about 10 feet back from a sliding door. The hawk was about 30 feet from the door on a fence. First, I shot a few images through the side of the door that has no screen. Once I had a few of those shots, I kept my body hidden as I made my way to the sliding door and, exposing my arm only, I slowly slid open the glass door and then the screen door. It was dark and raining on and off. The light was very poor. I started shooting at 1/200 second at ISO 10,000. By the time I took this shot the light was good enough to get the ISO down to 1,000.
It’s hard to tell a cooper’s hawk from a sharp-shinned hawk because their markings are basically identical. They both prey mainly on smaller birds. They often occur in residential areas and have the same habit of keeping an eye on bird feeders. We don’t have feeders, but some of our neighbors may. In any event, we have birds in our yard regularly.
How have I concluded it’s a cooper’s hawk and not a sharp-shin? I’m not a bird ID expert. According to my Sibley bird guide, the cooper is 16.5 inches in length and the sharpie is 11 inches in length. A mourning dove is also 11 inches in length. This bird was much longer and larger than a mourning dove so I concluded it was a cooper’s hawk.
Some crows found the cooper and started pestering it, hoping to steal a meal. The cooper finally tired of the harassment and took off with its meal. Fortunately, it spent an hour on our fence before the crows drove it off.
